Dodd16

Project for Awesome, an internet based company, audience analysis is tailored to a unique but broad audience. Project for Awesome has a three step process in which it carries out its campaign, so in turn the audience is gained in three steps as well.

The first step is described by Project for Awesome as “community members from around the world make videos about a charity that is particularly meaningful for them. These are uploaded to the organizations website, but also should be shared around the internet and viewed, discussed, commented upon, etc.”. So, when doing an initial analysis one would think this step would be general but when taking a closer look at the typical YouTube demographic it can be narrowed down a bit. When looking at a the top content creators it is typically a millennial who posts on a consistent and frequent videos. While the top 10 include mostly males, the majority of creators are female. The typical content creator is not the only thing that needs consideration, it should also be taken into accounts that are willing and able to post for various charities. So narrowing it down from all members of YouTube to a more sizable and realistic group of people who are more likely to participate is a key element to identifying the audience for the campaign in its first stage.

The second step in the campaign also calls for narrowing the audience but on a different level. The second step is described as “…fundraising. We will have an amazing selection of perks for you to choose from if you want to donate to the Foundation to Decrease World Suck through our Indiegogo campaign“. The audience who will actually donate to the causes in the campaign are most likely going to be the demographics who spend the most amount of time on YouTube. This demographic is millennials with a high concentration of fourteen to seventeen year olds (81.9%). When using the Indiegogo campaign it is so important to have a relatively defined audience when doing the rewards for donations. It is also important to tailor the campaign to those who will give the most. According to Philanthropy.com “middle-class Americans give a far bigger share of their discretionary income to charities than the rich. Households that earn $50,000 to $75,000 give an average of 7.6 percent of their discretionary income to charity, compared with an average of 4.2 percent for people who make $100,000 or more”.

The third part of the campaign is a growing tacit used in campaigns on the web which is a 48-hour continuous live stream. Finding an audience for this step of the campaign is similar to the second part of the campaign because the campaign is still in search of donations and this time it is not for a reward using Indiegogo.

Although the parts of the campaign all differ identifying an audience for the entire campaign can be done as well. The audience is most likely fourteen to twenty four year olds consuming three or more hours of web content daily with a majority of that time on YouTube. The audience also will hail from an household that earns over $50,000 annually.

Identifying a key message for this audience can be simplified into finding a strategy to instill the benefits of giving to charity and helping those in need. The overall audience is a group of adolescents and young adults who are seem to be impressionable.The key message that is used by the campaign seems to be emphasizing how big of an impact each donor can have and focuses on reaching individuals. Expressing how important the causes are and how each and every donation makes a difference is the campaigns approach to reaching their goals. The campaigns results are as shows.

Foundation to Decrease World Suck, Inc. a Montana-based 501(c)3 charitable organization is a company that is mostly based off of one huge social media campaign entitled Project for Awesome. Staring in 2007 the company started the campaign or “project” to essentially improve life on planet earth or in their words make the world suck less.

Unlike other social media campaigns this is all user generated which I find incredibly interesting. The Project for Awesome campaign is an annual event that bands together content creators on YouTube to raise money for all kinds of causes and relating charities. Anyone with a YouTube account can join in on the fun and raise for a cause.

The campaign works in three parts all involving social media. First being the uploading of YouTube videos expressing thoughts on a certain cause and charity associated along with it. Once uploaded to YouTube and the Project for Awesome (commonly abbreviated as P4A) site videos will be voted by users to determine charities that will receive donations (half of the proceeds go to foundations voted upon and the others go to Save the Children and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) The second part is the actual fundraising which is done on the popular fundraising site Indiegogo. For a week the fundraiser is set up and donations can be made. Indiegogo is an interesting site because for increments of funds donated a “perk” or reward is given to the person who donated. The third part of the campaign is the live stream aspect. A 48 hour livestream is set up with different events to help raise awareness and money.

Project for Awesome main focus is content curation. The use of YouTube content creators creating their own videos about the company is the main way that P4A gets its advertising. The strategy of having other create buzz rather than themselves is extremely beneficial to them. If the situation was different and P4A had one YouTube channel and had all the content uploaded on it would be extremely less effective because the audience would be minuscule when compared to audiences of different content creators. I cannot think of another company the relies on content curation so heavily. P4A’s doesn’t have strict brand guidelines but in most content uploaded for others it is apparent the company’s logo is used in the thumbnail of the video (although some accounts are not able to make custom thumbnails).

Two persuasive messaging strategies can be found in parts of P4A. Currently on the companies website the logos strategy can be seen. Facts and figures showing how much money was raised in the previous years campaign can be seen. The other messaging strategy that is apparent in the content curation aspect is pathos which is always a common factor when charities are involved. In videos created images and clips of emotional appealing things are in place to ensure a connection is made and a share, vote, or donation is made.